Justice Minister Downplays Criminal Code Change To Include ‘Honour Crimes’
Posted August 8, 2010 2:20 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Canada’s justice minister has moved to quash weeks of confusion by playing down the idea that Ottawa might amend the Criminal Code to include so-called “honour killings.”
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says Ottawa is making honour crimes a priority but there isn’t any real need to change the Criminal Code to achieve such an objective.
That puts an end to weeks of head-scratching prompted by a remark from one of his cabinet colleagues, Rona Ambrose, that the government was considering Criminal Code amendments.
Nicholson told The Canadian Press that some sort of plan would be devised but downplayed the possibility that code amendments were the preferred option.
“It’s not necessarily any changes to the Criminal Code,” Nicholson told The Canadian Press in an interview this week.
“Specifically with respect to murder, there are (already) very strong provisions.”
The confusion began last month when Ambrose, the minister for the status of women, said Ottawa was looking at amending the code.
Her statement was initially dismissed outright by the Justice Department; but the department later changed its tune and said Ambrose’s comments did indeed reflect government policy.
Nicholson said the Tories only plan one change to the murder provisions in the Criminal Code: doing away with the faint-hope clause, a controversial provision that allows those sentenced to life in prison to apply for early release after serving 15 years.
Ambrose’s comments raised eyebrows because murder is already the most serious infraction in the Criminal Code and it’s unclear how it might be judged any differently in “honour killing” cases.
Some women’s groups, particularly those representing minority women, call the idea offensive. They say it would create a separate category for women from certain cultures, apart from the rest of Canadian society.
“We totally dislike the term ‘honour killing,’ it doesn’t make sense, it’s a stupid way of describing a murder,” said Alia Hogben, executive director of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women
“In Canada, we should not use that language because it separates women from . . . Asia and it might be used (in court) as a mitigating circumstance.”
The justice minister echoed that sentiment.
“If you’re talking specifically in respect to murder, murder carries a life sentence and no eligibility for parole,” Nicholson said.
So-called crimes of honour involve an attack by one relative — usually a male — on another — usually female — for an act believed to have brought shame upon the family.
The purported logic is that such a violent gesture might help re-establish the family’s honour.
Nicholson said he looks forward to seeing the types of project proposals put forward by community members and is willing to listen.
A recent report by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy indicates an alarming problem of violence against women in immigrant households.
According to the report, there have been about a dozen documented “honour-slayings” in Canada since 2002.
Hogben says the best way to deal with domestic violence is not through Criminal Code amendments — but public workshops and awareness campaigns.
“Lots of education,” she said.
